Johann Schmidt (Earth-11584)
History "This is no longer the Age of Heroes, Herr Strucker. This is not the Age of Spies certainly. This is now the Age of Miracles. And as I am living proof, there is nothing quite as terrifying as a miracle." Born in 1907 just outside of Munich, Johann Schmidt was the son of a doctor. Even from an early age Schmidt showed a proclivity towards scientific knowledge, and many speculated that he would follow in his father's footsteps and become a medical doctor. However, Schmidt's future plans were forever altered by World War I and Germany's loss in it (as well as the loss of his father). From that moment on Schmidt desired to become the strong man of the world, and to prevent this weakness of death from appearing in his life again. Schmidt, as he grew older, became more and more obsessed with the myths of the ancient Norse, embracing the idea of Aryan strength. In 1926 at the age of 19, he joined the Nazi party in Germany and within a couple of years became one of the foremost scientists within the upper echelon of the party, becoming a close friend of the party leader, Adolf Hitler. However Schmidt's ambitions quickly grew beyond Hitler and his Third Reich. To that end, Schmidt founded the research division within the SS known as HYDRA. On the surface, HYDRA was just another branch of the military, but in reality Schmidt was recruiting soldiers loyal to him rather than loyal to the fuhrer. In 1936 he was introduced to the Swiss scientist Dr. Arnim Zola, who abandoned his quiet life in Zurich in favor of developing weapons for Schmidt based on an as yet unknown power source. Also that same year Schmidt, at the behest of Hitler, met with Dr. Abraham Erskine concerning Erskine's Super Soldier Serum. Erskine refused to help the Nazi's, but Schmidt threatened him and his family if he did not use the serum on Schmidt himself. The serum did increase Schmidt's strength and intelligence, but also had a side effect of giving him a diseased looking crimson skull, granting him the moniker of The Red Skull for the remainder of his life. Erskine escaped from Schmidt's custody, causing HYDRA to temporarily fall out of favor with Hitler. In 1940, HYDRA made an incursion into Norway against the orders of the fuhrer to obtain the long lost Tesseract, which would act as the power source for their more advanced weaponry. When he was confronted on this by members of Hitler's inner circle, Schmidt promptly had them killed and began fighting against both the Allies and clan destinely against Hitler's own forces. HYDRA became the main focus of a branch of the military called the SSR, especially after Schmidt dispatched his chief assassin, Heinz Kruger, to murder the defector Dr. Erskine. HYDRA continued their march across Europe, supplanting the Italian forces and basically taking over the country from Mussollini. However they started to face some degree of resistance from the SSR, though their technology far out-classed that of the Allied Forces. The tide was going in HYDRA's favor until Capt. Steve Rogers joined the fight. He set out to free his friend, James Barnes (who was being treated as a test subject for a new version of the Super Soldier Serum), from a HYDRA base thirty miles behind the lines, succeeding in not only freeing Barnes but also all the other soldiers kept there. Schmidt, unable to tolerate failure, set the base to self-destruct and took Dr. Arnim Zola with him to their main headquarters in the Swiss Alps, but not before confronting Rogers and revealing his true visage as the Red Skull to the Captain, escaping in a specially made aircraft afterwards. Over the next several months, the Red Skull faced set back after set back, as Capt. Rogers and his Howling Commandos took out HYDRA bases in succession. Growing impatient as his plans for world domination were slipping through his grasp, Schmidt designated Zola to take care of their problem. This plan was only partly successful, as it seemingly killed Sgt. Barnes of the Howling Commandos, but also resulted in Zola's capture. Thankfully for Schmidt, Barnes' body was found and surreptitiously shipped away to the Eastern Front, while his primary project of launching airstrikes against the US mainland was accomplished. Schmidt stood on the precipice of launching the ''Valkyrie, ''a bomber aircraft that in addition to its own payload would be able to dispatch miniature bombers to destroy several targets at once. On the launch day, Schmidt was surprised by the headlong attack by Captain America, resulting in the latter's capture. Before Schmidt could kill Rogers, though, the rest of the Howling Commandos and General Phillips army attacked the base fully. Red Skull launched the Valkyrie with himself at the helm. Capt. Rogers had snuck aboard though, and eventually destroyed the miniature bombers before they could deploy. Confronting the Red Skull in the cockpit, the two fought to a near even draw. In the course of their battle, though, the Tesseract fell out of its housing. The Red Skull unwisely picked it up, being transported across vast distances of space seemingly to his death. The Red Skull was far from dead, though. When he awoke he was confronted by an alien race called the Chitauri, who imprisoned him in suspended animation until they could decide what to do with him. In time, the Chitauri became the personal fighting force of the Mad Titan Thanos. Seeing the use of the Red Skull, Thanos eventually decided to return him to Earth to recover both the Tesseract and the Missing Time Stone from their, gifting him a scepter that contained the Infinity Stone of Mind. Red Skull, however, continued to have his own plans, and immediately decided to go into business for himself upon his return to Earth, nearly 70 years after his initial departure. He found that HYDRA, rather than shrivel up in his absence, had gone underground with Dr. Zola at the head, also founding an underground industrial arm known as AIM. The Red Skull reassumed command of HYDRA from Dr. Zola (now going by the name MODOC), and they quickly kidnapped World Security Council Member Alexander Pierce, replacing him with a Life Model Decoy they obtained from Latveria. For over a year, the fake Pierce positioned SHIELD into a new mission under Project Insight, while the Red Skull began experimenting with the Mind Stone in various ways. Schmidt joined up with Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, who had been running HYDRA for the last few years, and their experiments first extended into the realm of human testing. They found limited success with these experiments, as only two test subjects were successfully enhanced (for reasons that the Red Skull never truly discovered). Frustrated at the lack of progress there, Red Skull turned his attention to building artificial intelligence, similar to the consciousness of the Mind Stone itself. While engaged in this, Schmidt's scheme with Project Insight, which would have paved the way for HYDRA's eventual New World Order, was uncovered by his old enemy Captain America and the Black Widow. Schmidt revealed himself via video camera to the Captain, but then proceeded to go underground further with his experiments, setting up shop in the Eastern European country of Sokovia with his successful human experiments (Pietro and Wanda Maximoff) as well as Strucker and the AI program that would become known as Ultron. At some point, the Red Skull also commissioned a Life Model Decoy of himself, and hid further from the rest of his HYDRA cohorts as the Avengers closed in. Eventually the group attacked the base in Sokovia, taking Strucker and the Mind Stone as well as the basis of the Ultron program. The LMD of Red Skull accompanied the Maximoff twins in order to see how it all played out. The LMD was eventually destroyed by the fully realized Ultron, who recruited the Maximoff's to his side, leaving the real Red Skull with only a few HYDRA divisions to his name. After the Avengers incident in Johannesburg, though, Red Skull received a call from one Nick Fury. Fury offered Schmidt amnesty for his HYDRA forces as well as lienency in exchange for his aid at fighting Ultron. Doing so unilaterally, Fury's justification for such an offer was one of desperation. Not having anywhere else to turn, the Red Skull agreed, much to the chagrin of both Tony Stark and his former nemesis Captain America. The Avengers refused to have anything to do with Red Skull, leaving Fury to be the go-between with the differing forces. HYDRA troops did serve in the Battle of Sokovia alongside SHIELD forces and The Avengers. However Schmidt once again displayed his duplicity by trying to seize control of the bridge of the Helicarrier, attempting to win control of the newly created Vision, who had the Mind Stone Thanos had given the Red Skull at his disposal. Fortunately for Fury, he had War Machine, Wonder Man and Falcon in reserve to face off against the HYDRA forces Red Skull brought with him. Schmidt then came face to face with the Hulk, which resulted in the Red Skull abandoning his plan as quickly as possible, disappearing from the Helicarrier in a Quinjet to Parts Unknown. SHIELD has tried to track him, finding the Quinjet abandoned somewhere in the Indian Ocean, but to date the Red Skull has not been found. Powers & Abilities * Enhanced Physiology: Due to his use of an early-form of Abraham Erskine's Super Soldier Serum, Schmidt has been enhanced to near-peak levels of human conditioning, including enhanced strength, agility, reflexes and speed. His mental acuity is also improved as a result of this process. * Scientific Knowledge: Dr. Erskine had previously stated that Schmidt was a brilliant scientist in his own right, and Schmidt's scientific background allowed him to harness the power of the Tesseract (albeit not for its intended use) when no other person, not even Howard Stark, was able to do so. * Use of the Mind Stone: At one point, Schmidt had access to the Mind Stone and was studying it to attempt to create artificial intelligence. It also, in unknown ways, gave him the abilitiy to alter the DNA of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Weaknesses Red Skull's vanity and arrogance were in stark contrast to his nemesis, Captain America. Schmidt was known to have a temper and would not tolerate failure from his underlings. He also had a desire for world conquest that would not be sated, no matter how stacked the deck was against him, such as when he turned on Thanos' plan for acquiring the Infinity Stones on Earth (presumably Thanos was looking for the Time Stone, and perhaps the whereabouts of the Tesseract) and when he turned on SHIELD during the Battle of Sokovia. Film Details Red Skull appears in the following films within the Earth-11584 continuity. In The First Avenger he is portrayed by actor Hugo Weaving. In all other cases he is portrayed by actor Ross Marquand. * Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) * The Avengers (2012) scene only * Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) * Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Category:Earth-11584 Category:Earth-11584 Characters Category:Bad Characters